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Deadly☠️ To avoid

☠️ Cowbane / Water hemlock

Cicuta virosa · Apiaceae

🌳 Temperate Europe🌲 Boreal🍁 North America
🧠 To remember it“Chambered root, lethal shoot”—cut the rootstock open: if it looks like a honeycomb grid, run.
Cowbane / Water hemlock — Cicuta virosa

🔍 Identify it without mistakes

Often cited as North America's most toxic plant (its close North American relative, Cicuta maculata, shares the exact same danger level), it grows in wetlands and when sliced, reveals characteristic hollow chambers in its swollen rootstock—the dead giveaway. Its sweet-tasting root, reminiscent of parsnip or celery, is responsible for most fatal poisonings.

  1. swollen rootstock at the base, hollowed out with crosswise chambers visible when cut open (like a honeycomb grid)
  2. hollow stem, often purple-tinged at the base
  3. toothed leaflets, with side veins ending in the notches between teeth (not at the tips, unlike many edible umbellifers)
  4. white umbels typical of the Apiaceae family
Size0,5 à 2 m
Floweringjuin-août
Habitatriverbanks, marshes, flooded ditches, stagnant or slow-moving water

⚠️ Not to be confused with

Wild parsnip / wild carrot / wild celery (Pastinaca sativa / Daucus carota / Apium graveolens)low for these species

To tell them apart: cutting the water hemlock rootstock reveals a series of hollow chambers, absent in the solid taproots of parsnips and carrots

Great water-parsnip (Sium latifolium)moderate, itself sometimes classified as toxic

To tell them apart: no safe distinction without confirmed botanical expertise; absolute rule: never taste an umbellifer root in wetland areas

☠️ What kills

nomCicutoxin (a potent convulsant polyacetylene), concentrated in the rootstock and stem base
dose letale estimeea single bite of the rootstock (a few grams) can kill an adult; considered among the most potent plant toxins known in North America (Poison Control, approx)
delai15 à 60 minutes
symptomesabdominal pain, nausea, followed by violent, repeated generalized seizures, often fatal due to respiratory arrest during a fit
antidoteno specific antidote; ICU management focusing on anticonvulsants
morts documenteesyes—documented fatal cases in the US, Canada, and Northern Europe, particularly involving people who mistook the root for wild parsnip

First steps : Call emergency services immediately: seizures can start in under 30 minutes and are instantly life-threatening. Do not induce vomiting or give anything to swallow. Keep a piece of the cut root (the hollow chambers will help confirm the diagnosis).

Sources (3)

No entry replaces a certain identification in the field, or medical advice. When in doubt: don't eat it. If ingestion is suspected: poison control or 112/911.